For the third day in a row the vibes were off the charts amongst an especially raucous and rowdy crowd in Cairns. And for good reason, as the Aussies dominated on home soil with Ryan Gilchrist and Harriet Burbidge-Smith leading the charge down the hyper-quick and feature-rich course. The hard-packed “moondust” proved to be just the right consistency for riders to blitz through the technical combination of hits, twists and turns. Gilchrist, an engineering student, designed the perfect path to victory as he stayed calm, collected and laser-focused on the task ahead. My strategy today was to go as fast…
Author: Tomas
“It’s been a long time coming, and hopefully it keeps coming,” said Garret Mechem on his massive win at today’s razor close Speed & Style final.The So Cal export once again proved he’s much more than a dirt jump and slopestyle specialist as he blended his effortless style with blistering speed en route to a career best result. After nearly missing the gate after the first jump, “Lil Rojo” kept it fast and loose, but managed to hang on to edge out the reigning King of Crankworx Champion on his final run. Might be the loosest run of my life,…
Crankworx Cairns is officially underway with the Official Australian Whip-Off Championships as the first event to be held on the immaculately sculpted tracks in the rainforest. The judges had their hands full with a stacked list of riders, and freshly built Whip-Off jump brought to you by the Elevate and World Trail crews. Make no mistake that Garret “lil Rojo” Mechem was looking to go 2 for 2 as the Men’s Australian Whip-Off Champ, and this year proved he could send it the most sideways, maintaining his position on the top step. Super stoked! The setup this year was really…
Watch the second episode of Red Bull Media House’s new bike docuseries Race Tapes, DIY, on Red Bull TV. In it you’ll discover the grit, grime and glory of going it alone, with World Champ and team owner of Intense Factory Racing Aaron Gwin, downhill racer and bike designer Neko Mullaly and YouTube bike legend Seth Alvo. There are no instruction manuals when you ‘do it yourself’. The stakes are high, but the rewards can be off the charts. Just ask five-time downhill UCI World Champion Aaron Gwin. He’s still competing, scoring top tens at the UCI Mountain Bike World…
Red Bull Media House launch their brand-new docuseries Race Tapes on Red Bull TV. Road, the first episode, focuses on two world champs road racer Tom Pidcock and MTB star Jolanda Neff, to prove that it really is possible to trade slicks for off-roaders, and vice versa, and still ride home with gold. Watch Race Tapes, S1 E1 here: Roadie Tom Pidcock makes the leap from what he describes as the high performance, high stakes world of road racing to the “much friendlier and more relaxed” mountain biking scene. Since turning pro in 2021 Tom has won MTB gold in…
The Gravity Card is heading into the 2023 mountain bike season with a total of five new bike parks, expanding the already vast network further across Europe: From the LAAX bike trails in Switzerland, to the Mottolino Bike Park in Livigno and the Kronplatz Bike Park in Bruneck /South Tyrol (both Italy) and the Bikepark Tirol in Steinach am Brenner to the Szczyrk Enduro Trails by TREK in southern Poland, 44 new trails will increase the endorphin level of every Gravity Card owner. In total, the international network of Europe’s best bikeparks now includes whopping 28 bike parks. While the…
As the snow retreats to the last shady corners of the Leoganger Steinberge mountains and spring is finally here, the shape crews in Saalfelden Leogang have already been working on the trails for a while. Their goal: to get the lines & trails in the Epic Bikepark Leogang and the single trails in the bike region ready for the opening on 12 May 2023. The brand new AlteSchmiede Trail, which promises 3.5 kilometers of finest single trail action, will be added for the 2023 season for the first time. Another treat for mountain bike guests in Austria’s biggest bike region…
From May 17th to the 21st, the world’s top riders will converge in Cairns, Australia, for five days of action-packed racing, fierce competition, and a whole lot of “shoeys” in the tropical rainforest. You can catch it all live on Red Bull TV. For those lucky souls who have already secured their festival passes, here is what to expect from stop number two, the paradise edition, of the 2023 Crankworx World Tour. The Flux Trail, Elevate Tail Building and World Trail crews have been working hard on the tools to freshen up and prep Cairns’ already immaculate tracks. Here’s a 1-minute preview of each of the courses from…
The new PRO Enduro and E-MTB specific saddles, in conjunction with an updated naming convention, will provide cyclists the ability to power their performance comfortably and efficiently. With a lightweight, and robust appearance, these two new saddles are the first introduction of a new design and overarching naming convention that will make saddle identification easier for cyclists, bike shop owners and dealers. Using three letter acronyms and two numbers, the PRO saddle naming convention explains each saddle’s intended discipline, length and the body position it facilitates, including the base, rail and padding material being used. PRO MSN 1.3 Enduro Saddle Developed…
WTB is excited to introduce its e-bike focused Devo saddle with a patent-pending Pickup handle that provides a simple yet effective way for riders to lift and maneuver e-bikes while also being a useful grab point for pushing up rough sections of trail. With 30+ years of innovative WTB saddle design to back its introduction, the patent-pending Pickup handle introduces an additional level of function and convenience to our already beloved saddle line. Pickup Handle for Heavy Lifting The additional weight of e-bikes creates new challenges when it comes to lifting your bike onto a rack, moving it around the…
Freeride mountain bike festival Darkfest is no stranger to world records and the sixth year of the spectacle was no different. The invite-only event combines the most fearless freeriders with the biggest dirt jumps in the world and it delivered another unbelievable week of progressive tricks that pushed the boundaries of what’s possible on a mountain bike. This year the crew constructed the longest dirt jump yet, measuring in at 110 feet to the sweet spot of the landing and UK rider Tom Isted took full advantage, backflipping his way into the history books not once, but twice. The Darkfest…
With Rotorua being back at the start of the Crankworx calendar, it meant two things for the slopestyle athletes: good weather and plenty of practice time. After seeing mind blowing practice footage flooding in all week, expectations going into the contest were high to say the least. Run after run of progression, in the end it was Emil Johansson coming out on top. As Johansson’s 10th Crankworx slopestyle victory, this may have been his most technical run yet. Seeing 360 barspin to double downside whips both ways and a new flat drop flip x-up to start a heater of a run.…
The final day of Crankworx Rotorua brings the fans a 2 for 1 special, starting the day off with Dual Slalom Rotorua in the morning, before the festival finale – Maxxis Slopestyle in Memory of McGazza. With dual slalom qualifiers happening earlier in the week, it was an interesting turn of events to see how the top Elite Women and Men qualifiers would end up on finals day. With a few changes to the flagging positions, the dual slalom track that many of these riders raced only a few short months ago brought some new challenges into the mix. The…
The second to last day of Crankworx Rotorua and the sunny blue skies continued to carry momentum from the past week making it an epic Saturday for Speed & Style Rotorua. The day started with qualifiers for 10 Elite Women and 27 Elite Men. The Queen of Crankworx, Caroline Buchanan qualified first for the women, and the undisputed King of Speed & Style, Tomas Lemoine, qualified first for the men. Things heated up throughout the rounds, with a stacked field of “proper speed & stylers”, in the words of Tomas Lemoine. Australian, Mike Ross got the crowd buzzing when receiving…